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BY LUKE GILLESPIE
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It is always difficult to grow a company, no matter what line of work, and convincing sophisticated customers in defense manufacturing to do business with an Indian tribe with little experience in the industry is challenging. Things are not any easier when the company is located in rural America and needs to pull clients away from established manufacturing centers on the east and west coasts.
Stephen Benefield, CEO and managing officer of Choctaw Defense, is proud of the company and work it performs, although he says it was not easy to get to its current position as the leading Native American defense manufacturer: “We had to really get over an impression problem,” Benefield states.
Most Indian tribes that have tried manufacturing have not done very well,” he explains, pointing to the isolation of many tribes and the resulting lack of available human capital such as engineers, logisticians and accountants as the primary reasons.
Headquartered in McAlester, Okla., with two other southeastern Oklahoma locations in Antlers and Hugo, Choctaw Defense brought clients to its facilities to prove that it could handle large defense contracts. “We got them to come out her and see what we’re like,” Benefield explains. “They were delighted by our capabilities and customer-service attitude. We are now known as a top-tier defense manufacturing contractor.”
The Choctaw Way
After being in business for more than 20 years, Choctaw Defense says it has a proven record of success with military and prime contractor customers. Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma owns the company, which is the third largest Native American tribe in the United States. The company takes pride in being able to give back to the Choctaw community and help it thrive. “Unemployment-really, underemployment in our area-is a real problem,” Benefield states. “In the last 10 years, we have given about $75 million in payroll out to our community. Profits are rolled back into our company to expand, and everything we don’t put back in we give to the tribe.”
One way the Choctaw Nation gives back is through scholarships. When a Choctaw child achieves certain grade scores in high school and maintains good attendance, the Choctaw Nation provides scholarships for that child to gain a higher education. The tribe has relationships with several Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Brown in that any Choctaw student that excels in his or her studies will have a great chance of obtaining acceptance to one of these schools on a full scholarship funded by the school and the tribe.
“Giving back, that’s really what we’re all about,” Benefield says. “There is no group of owners or shareholders to feed money to; it all goes back into the community. An important goal of ours is to create economic opportunities for people in our community. That’s the Choctaw way – community ahead of company.”
Blazing a Trail
Choctaw Defense’s three facilities are ISO certified and encompass more than 350,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The company is certified by the Small Business Administration as a tribally owned 8(a) and HUBZone manufacturer. Holding true to its company slogan, “Built for the Battlefield,” Choctaw Defense manufactures a variety of military and commercial products, including aluminum and steel military-grade shipping and storage containers, for which the company says it’s best known.
Lately, a major product for the company has been medium tactical vehicle replacement (MTVR) trailers. MTVRs are designed to haul water, ammo, gen-sets and other military equipment, while being able to handle off-road pounding. The three types of MTVR trailers produced by Choctaw Defense are cargo, general purpose and water trailers.
“Military transport vehicles used by the Army and Marine Corps are becoming incredibly capable,” Benefield says. Benefield believes MTVRs will bring more growth to Choctaw Defense, especially the water trailer variant intended to replace the current “water bulls” – the aging fleet of water trailers used by all branches of the military.
Choctaw Defense expects to build the MTVR family of trailers for years at its state-of-the-art facility.
The company builds several other items, including 105-millimeter wooden ammo crates, C17 aircraft maintenance fixtures, replacement load floors for Chinook Helicopters and guidance fins for laser-guided bombs. |
